The Changing And Shaping Of Teachers' Social Character

In the process of modernization,Chinese society has experienced a series of transformation and change.The scope of social change is wide and the scale is huge,changing all the tangible things in the society,and reshaping the invisible spiritual world of people,resulting in a series of changes in psychological structure,perception and values.Therefore a care of the psychological level has become a consideration during the development process.As a special profession,teacher is in the focus of social development and educational reform.They experience contradiction and conflict between tradition and the modern,reality and future,inheritance and innovation,and have implicitly subtle mind set,which potentially affects their teaching and life.However,researches on teacher have been limited to pedagogy,isolated from fresh and real daily life,pulling teachers out of social action as a mere education professional,neglecting of their social psychology factors under the presentation of teaching behavior.Social character theory provides us with useful theoretical reference on how to investigate teachers' psychological patterns and their development.This paper focuses on group psychology of teachers in primary and secondary schools,interprets the theory of teacher social character,analyzes teacher social character diachronically,investigates shaping mechanism and laws of change of teacher social character.It sees practice through the lens of theory,investigates and analyzes the status quo of teacher social character,presents actual mental picture of teachers,puts forward a perspective pattern of teachers' social character,and discusses on the basis of historical and realistic reflection and education demands of a new era a possible scheme on its perfection.Teacher social character is formed on the basis of similar life background and professional experience,which are common among most teachers.Teacher social character is not a simple sum of character in quantity,but a group psychological representation of social structure and cultural form acting on teachers.It is historical,rather stable,and dynamically adaptive.It is the psychological accumulation of teacher culture,the implicit guide of teachers' behavior and the exemplary representation of national character.Compared with individual character,social character describes a group psychological mechanism formed in the process of socialization,with the purpose ofprobing common personality of teachers rather than individual personality.As a common psychological trait,social character is rooted in the deep part of the teacher's individual personality,determines their values,ideology,attitude and action orientation Therefore,social character is the endogenous driving force of teachers' behavior and the psychological basis for the formation of teacher community.Teacher social character is not innately presupposed,rather it is the psychological tendency through teacher's interaction with social environment;its formation and development have unique regularity,influenced and restricted by social structure and cultural environment,and depends on teacher's autonomous choice and construction.Based on a review and analysis of personality and social character,and interpretation of the concept of teacher social character,this paper describes and analyzes teacher social character from three dimensions: teachers' values,social mentality and social life.Values are the internal driving force of teacher social character,social mentality is the psychological tone,and life style is the external expression form.These three are not separated;there is a particular relationship between each other,together showing the characteristics and patterns of teachers' social character.Teachers are not metaphysical figure.They are product of social order.Their teaching and life depend on specific social background,presenting symptom of the age,reflecting fundamental live patterns of the time.After the founding of the People's Republic of China,along with social change,education suffer ups and downs,together with social status and identities of teacher community.Before the Cultural Revolution(1949—1966),in the passionate burning years,dedication as social character rooted in the heart of teachers,teacher had selfless,service,dedicative,and peaceful character.During the Cultural Revolution(1966—1976),teachers became object of revolutionary struggle and they formed a subservient and cautious character in the cruel political struggle.From Reform and Opening up to the end of the 20 th century(1977—2000),,the chaos of Cultural Revolution was slowly corrected;teachers' battered body and mind recovered,but their psychology was hit by the tide of market economy,so their character was market oriented,utilitarian,confused and frantic.In the 21 st century,transformative psychological conflict flattened and social mentality restored.An empirical survey of teacher social character in the form of questionnaires and interviews shows that in the complicated social change and educational reform,modern teacher social character is multiple and adaptive.Teachers dedicate to teach while often feel anxious and imbalanced.Through the historical investigation and realistic analysis of teacher social character,we can see its shaping process is complex,under impact from interaction between individual teacher and social environment.Teacher social character is influenced and restricted by social environment,but it is not a passive adaptation to the social environment.Social character can change educational development and social life through teachers' ideology and action pattern.Teacher social character exert both a positive and negative effect on social change and education advance.Only improving teacher social character in the two-way interaction between teachers and society,modifying unhealthy psychological experience before it solidifies,can we play out its positive function to students and society.Teacher of the new age should transcend materialistic value pursuit,build optimistic social mindset and critical spirit.The sound and perfection of teacher social character and the healthy and orderly development of teacher community can not be separated from a stable social environment;it also need a humane school institution in the technical information society,as well as teachers' self-transcendence.